Teacher’s Name: Rebecca Bubier Date of Lesson: two Grade Level: 8 Topic: Earth Cycles
Objectives:
Student will understand that earth cycles, such as water and energy cycles are important to recognizing the affect of pollution, energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption and climate change.
Student will know terminology. water cycle, carbon cycles, nitrogen cycle, and energy cycle. They will know how those cycles affect each other and how they affect climate change.
Student will be able to do compare cycles, how they work together and how they work separately.
Maine Learning Results Alignment
MaineLearning Results: Science and Technology
E. The Living Environment
D2 Earth
Grades 6-8
Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-terms changes to the earth. d. Describe significant Earth Resources and how their limited supply affects how they are used.
Assessment
Formative (Assessment for Learning)
Students will be having a discussion regarding how the earth resembles the functions of the human body. Students will have to get together with their partners (which will be the choice of the students) and talk about earth systems. They will have the opportunity to read everyone’s wiki and then ask those groups questions. I will assess how many questions they have and exactly what they are asking, if there needs to be any clarification, I will give that.
Summative (Assessment of Learning)
Students will be creating some sort of audio project using garage band. They can write a song. Record a poem; describe a drawn picture, anything they want. I want them to be able to use garage band so they will know how to use it when it is time for them to complete their final performance task. They are going to play a game with their classmates where they create an art and either record or play it for their classmates. If they create a piece of visual art, they have to describe it to their classmates. The catch is that they can’t show it until after they have played their recording. They must incorporate some asked questions into the art and the affect that human’s have on earth cycles and thus, earth systems.
Integration
Technology – students will be using technology to create an audio representation of something that they created. They have to have some sort of ‘art’ and then they will talk about it using garage band.
English –students will be using language to help other students ‘see’ their art. This will help them with their descriptive skills, which will help when describing experiments and other things in the sciences and the natural world.
Art – students will have the opportunity to create some sort of art (as they choose) and then describe it.
Music – students will have the opportunity to create a song or a musical representation of earth cycles, it can be funny, it can be serious but it has to use garage band and they have to make the connection between what we put into earth’s system and what happens with it.
Groupings
Students will have partners; they will be able to choose their partners. If I feel that any two students do not work well together, people will be moved if they are not on task.
Differentiated Instruction
Strategies Linguistic – students will be talking to record the description of their piece of art, or recording their piece of art. They will be having a discussion about earth cycles before we get the activity going. Spatial – students will have the opportunity to create a visual representation of the cycles. They can choose one, or do more than one. Musical – students will have the opportunity to create a song or integrate music with reading a poem or describing a piece of art. Bodily – Kinesthetic – students will have the opportunity to create a song and then dance to it. They can treat the project as an interpretive dance or they can make some sort of kinesthetic visual. Either way, it requires them to be up and moving.
Interpersonal –students will be working on their audio art with a partner Intrapersonal – students will be working on their own while we are having the discussion of earth’s system and the human body. They will be sharing their own thoughts and opinions. Naturalist – students will be talking and working with the connection of nature to the human body in the form of earth’s systems and cycles.
Modifications/Accommodations
I will review student’s IEP, 504 or ELLIDEP and make appropriate modifications and accommodations.
If a student is absent, he or she will have to create a piece of art and then do the recording. They will have to read the passage from Sacred Balance about earth’s system being similar to the human body. Last class we talked about it a little bit, but we are going to go into more depth about what pollution can do to earth cycles and thus earth’s system etc. All information will be given to that student by me; any additional questions will be addressed by me.
For gifted students, or students that have prior knowledge of garage band or greatened musical/ artistic talent, they will be encouraged to make their songs longs, better, and more complex or to add more to their art work. I will ask them to integrate songs to music into the background of their garage band recording. There will be several things they can do to tweak their song, and I will show them how.
Extensions
Students will be using type II technology to gain descriptive skills. They will be using it to create art and to see the importance of keeping things. Other students will be commenting on their art and giving them positive feedback about what they liked about it.
Materials, Resources and Technology
Laptops
Markers
Whiteboard
Eraser
Overhead
Content Notes
Garage band software
Art Supplies (paint, markers, paper, brushes, chalk…etc.)
Microphones if computers do not have them
Additional music for students to integrate (at their own discretion)
Content notes from last class
Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale
Standard 3 - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development. Rationale: I used the theory of different learning styles to successfully accommodate different ways in which students learn. It is important that students are in a comfortable and supporting environment in my classroom.
Beach Ball -Students will have the opportunity to choose which art project they would like to complete and how they want to record it. They can choose what they want to talk about during the discussion. Clipboard – Students will have instructions written on the board. They will have a process during the discussion. The art project is anything that they would like to do; it just has to be approved by me if it is not visual art, song or poem. Microscope - Students really have to incorporate the knowledge that they just gained about different cycles. They have to use the information to create a piece of art work and then use a new type of software to describe it. They have to answer questions regarding earth system and earth cycles. Puppy - There is no question that there is an environment of respect in my classroom. Students will be respectful of the questions that students have and also the language in which they are using around all students.
Standard 4 - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory. Rationale: I used one of the facets of understanding because I feel that it is more important that students have a wide range of information looking at cycles and functions in earth’s system. The point of this lesson is to go into depth of earth cycles, how they are related, how they are different. I want them to understand what things that people do to the earth affect everything in the earth’s system.
Compare cycles, how they work together and how they work separately.
Standard 5 - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs. Rationale: I used the theory of multiple intelligences because I feel it is the best way to accommodate all types of learners and to maintain a sense of equality among students in my classroom.
Linguistic – students will be talking to record the description of their piece of art, or recording their piece of art. They will be having a discussion about earth cycles before we get the activity going. Spatial – students will have the opportunity to create a visual representation of the cycles. They can choose one, or do more than one. Musical – students will have the opportunity to create a song or integrate music with reading a poem or describing a piece of art. Bodily – Kinesthetic – students will have the opportunity to create a song and then dance to it. They can treat the project as an interpretive dance or they can make some sort of kinesthetic visual. Either way, it requires them to be up and moving. Interpersonal –students will be working on their audio art with a partner Intrapersonal – students will be working on their own while we are having the discussion of earth’s system and the human body. They will be sharing their own thoughts and opinions. Naturalist – students will be talking and working with the connection of nature to the human body in the form of earth’s systems and cycles.
Standard 8 - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner. Rationale: Students will be having a discussion regarding how the earth resembles the functions of the human body. Students will have to get together with their partners (which will be the choice of the students) and talk about earth systems. They will have the opportunity to read everyone’s wiki (from last class) and then ask those groups questions. I will assess how many questions they have and exactly what they are asking, if there needs to be any clarification, I will give that. Students will be creating some sort of audio project using garage band. They can write a song, record a poem, describe a drawn picture (or any visual art), anything they want. I want them to be able to use garage band so they will know how to use it when it is time for them to complete their final performance task.
Teaching and Learning Sequence:
Student desks or tables will be set up so that students will be able to see the whiteboard.
Agenda:
Reading of “A Sacred Balance”
Discussion
Art and Recording time
Presentations
Students will understand that all the things that we do to the earth, affects more than just that one piece of land, or that one body of water, everything we do affects everything. Earth’s system is interconnected and it starts out with the basic cycles. They are learning this because it is important to know what pollution and consumption of fossil fuels affects. They should know where those resources come from and what our impact is on the change climate and the earth itself. Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-terms changes to the earth. They are learning about cycles, and the human actions that affect the short-term and long-term changes. I am going to hook my students by reading a passage from the book “Sacred Balance” By David Suzuki. It talks about earth being a super organism and how human affect that balance. Where, Why, What, Hook, Tailor: Linguistic, Spatial,
Students will need to know about the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and energy cycle. They will need to know how our actions can affect the cycles. There will be the pictures of the cycles (from last class) on the projector. We will talk about how our actions could affect the cycles. Students will be able to think of things that they think people could do to lessen that impact. I am going to deliver instruction by standing in front of the class and leading the discussion. I want students to think and think creatively about what people does that could disrupt the cycles and thus disrupt other things in earth’s system, because everything is related. Other than that, they will be working on their art and recording and I will just be walking around making sure everyone is on task and that people understand what they are being expected to do. I will check for understanding during the discussion. I will also see what they are doing creatively to try to teach people about what they are doing to the planet. Equip, Explore, Rethink, Tailors: Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Musical, Intrapersonal and Naturalist.
They will use higher order thinking while they are incorporating education in a creative medium. They will be able to record a way for people to stop or to be aware of what they are doing that impacts the super organism. They will be using the pictures displayed on the overhead to talk about their part in this. They might not be doing the things that impact the environment, but they can recognize that it happens and how they can educate other people to stop or be aware of it. Students will be able to compare the cycles and then talk about how people’s impact disrupts those cycles and thus disrupts many naturally occurring things in earth’s system. I will check for understanding during the discussion and their ability to integrate these concepts into an art form. I think for some students that are not musically or artistically inclined it might be difficult. However they will have the opportunity to write a poem or some other form of art if they feel it would be less difficult for them. I just really want to get students thinking about these issues. I also do not want to overwhelm them with the problems of the human race on the planet. They are around fourteen years old and there is not a whole lot that they can do, so it’s awareness and not necessarily to start a social movement. I will be giving feedback on the students’ art before they start recording. It is then they will be able to refine and revise it. Once they have recorded, they will have to show me and if they have some sort of description of their art that talks about how it relates to disrupting earth cycles and impact on earth’s system it will be sufficient. Students will present it to the class, lights off and if it’s a visual piece of art, they cannot show it until after the played recording. Students will have their eyes closed while listening to this. They have to list the environmental factors after the recording is over. The more they put in it, the more fun it is to talk about. Students will be in a partnership or they can work alone if they choose. They will not have roles, they will have to create their own art, and they can just have one recording if they want. They will show evidence of learning when we are having the discussion. They will show it in their final project and on the test. Explore, Experience, Rethink, Revise, Refine, Tailors: Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Musical, Intrapersonal and Naturalist.
Students will not have to self-assess. I will ask them to write a quick blog that says what they liked and what they didn’t like about the project. I will ask them if there was anything they would have done differently, but I am not going to ask them to give themselves a grade on a creative piece. I will provide timely feedback to students by telling them what they should change and not grading it until after the presentations. They will know that they have everything they need before they can present. This connects to the next lesson because we are talking about spheres which are another thing in earth’s system that are very important and can be harmed by human impact. Evaluate, Tailors: Linguistic, Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Naturalist.
Content Notes:
(Same notes as lesson one, continued use) Water Cycle:
The process begins with condensation, when water vapor condenses in the atmosphere to form clouds. Condensation occurs when the temperature of the air or earth changes. Water changes states when temperatures fluctuate. So when the air cools enough, water vapor has to condense on particles in the air to form clouds. This process is very noticeable on plants as they dew in the morning.
As clouds form, winds move them across the globe, spreading out the water vapor. When eventually the clouds can't hold the moisture, they release it in the form of precipitation, which can be snow, rain, hail, etc.
The next three stages: infiltration, runoff, and evaporation occur simultaneously. Infiltration occurs when precipitation seeps into the ground. This depends a lot on the permeability of the ground.
Permeability is the measure of how easily something flows through a substance. The more permeable, the more precipitation seeps into the ground. If precipitation occurs faster than it can infiltrate the ground, it becomes runoff. Runoff remains on the surface and flows into streams, rivers, and eventually large bodies such as lakes or the ocean. Infiltrated groundwater moves similarly as it recharges rivers and heads towards large bodies of water.
As both of these processes are happening, the power of the sun is driving this cycle by causing evaporation. Evaporation is the change of liquid water to a vapor. Sunlight aids this process as it raises the temperature of liquid water in oceans and lakes. As the liquid heats, molecules are released and change into a gas. Warm air rises up into the atmosphere and becomes the vapor involved in condensation.
Considering so little of the water on earth is drinkable to people, it is amazing the supply has survived as long as it has. The hydrologic cycle continues to move water and keep sources fresh. It is estimated that 100 million billion gallons a year are cycled through this process. Without this process life on Earth would be impossible. We need it to sustain us and for all of our life processes to function. Without water, life would not be possible on Earth. Nitrogen Cycle
One of the most limiting factors for growth in plants and animals. Most nitrogen exists as a gas. In this common molecule, two nitrogen atoms are bound by a strong triple bond that makes them all but completely unavailable to any other atom, ion, compound, or organism. Yet without sufficient levels of available nitrogen, organisms would be unable to create their structures or to perform vital functions. Nitrogen is a key building block in a number of important molecules, such as nucleic acids, amino acids, and proteins. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible.
Two natural forces are responsible for most of the gaseous nitrogen that is "fixed," or made available to, plants and animals. Electricity in the form of lightning is one such force. When a bolt of lightning travels through the atmosphere it breaks the triple bond holding the nitrogen gas molecule together, enabling free nitrogen atoms to bond with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen oxides. These compounds dissolve in atmospheric moisture to form nitrates that then fall as rain.
The other force, although less spectacular than lightning, is no less energetic. Countless bacteria, including those living freely in the soil and those found on the roots of some types of plants, fix more than ten times the nitrogen released by lightning strikes. These single-celled organisms break the bonds in nitrogen gas molecules and combine free nitrogen atoms with hydrogen to form ammonium, an ion that is readily absorbed by plants. Some types of nitrogen-fixing bacteria have formed symbiotic relationships with certain types of plants. Legumes, such as peas and beans, support colonies of bacteria called rhizobium, in special structures called nodules, which appear directly on their roots. While the bacteria provide the plants with nitrogen, the plants provide the bacteria with energy-rich carbohydrates and a moist environment in which they can thrive.
Human activities have severely altered the nitrogen levels in some ecosystems. Although nitrogen is typically a limited resource in many environments, it has been made available in massive quantities as a result of agricultural and industrial practices. Sometimes described as "nutrient pollution," the result has often been catastrophic. For instance, when waste such as nitrogen-rich sewage and fertilizers pours into ponds, lakes, and streams, the result is an overabundance of algae (also know as an algal bloom). The eventual death of these microscopic plants leads to their decomposition by bacteria—a process that uses vast quantities of oxygen. Following an algal bloom, decomposing bacteria in lakes and ponds become so abundant and oxygen depletion so complete that fish and other aquatic life may die. In the years since scientists discovered this connection, cities and farmers have taken measures to control the flow of nitrogen into ecosystems, so that this powerful element is available at the right quantity where it is needed and less pervasive where it is not. Carbon Cycle
Carbon is an element. It is part of oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living things. Carbon doesn’t stay in one place. It is always on the move!
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.
In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food from carbon.
Carbon moves from plants to animals.
Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eats them. Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.
Carbon moves from plants and animals to the ground.
When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon into the ground. Some becomes buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.
Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.
Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere. Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels are burned.
When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. That’s the weight of 100 million adult African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels, 3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.
Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.
The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere. Animals that live in the ocean use the carbon to build their skeletons and shells.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago. The atmosphere has not held this much carbon for at least 420,000 years according to data from ice cores. More greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are causing our planet to become warmer.
Carbon moves through our planet over longer time scales as well. For example, over millions of years weathering of rocks on land can add carbon to surface water which eventually runs off to the ocean. Over long time scales, carbon is removed from seawater when the shells and bones of marine animals and plankton collect on the sea floor. These shells and bones are made of limestone, which contains carbon. When they are deposited on the sea floor, carbon is stored from the rest of the carbon cycle for some amount of time. The amount of limestone deposited in the ocean depends somewhat on the amount of warm, tropical, shallow oceans on the planet because this is where prolific limestone-producing organisms such as corals live. The carbon can be released back to the atmosphere if the limestone melts or is metamorphosed in a subduction zone. Energy Cycle
Heat is energy that is transferred between two objects or substances of different temperatures; heat typically flows from a warmer material to a cooler material. Generally, when heat is transferred to a material, the motion of its particles speeds up and its temperature increases.
There are three methods of heat transfer: radiation, conduction, and convection. Radiation transfers energy by electromagnetic waves, a method in which heat can transfer even in the absence of matter (through outer space, for example). When electromagnetic radiation strikes an object, the energy carried by the electromagnetic wave is transferred to the object, causing the particle motion within the object to increase. For example, a microwave oven emits microwave radiation to transfer heat to food. Similarly, the reason that you can feel the warmth of an object at a distance, such as from the Sun or a light bulb, is due to the transfer of heat by radiation. While all matter emits and absorbs electromagnetic radiation, some materials are better at absorbing radiation than others; shiny surfaces, for example, tend to reflect rather than absorb radiation.
Conduction transfers heat through direct contact. If two objects are placed in contact with each other, heat flows from the warmer object (with faster-moving particles) to the cooler object (with slower-moving particles) by the direct interaction of the particles. When the faster particles collide with the slower particles, they transfer some of their energy to the slower particles. For example, when a hot pan is placed on a counter, the counter increases in temperature as the faster-moving molecules of the pan collide with and increase the motion of the molecules of the counter. At the same time, the molecules of the pan slow down, and the temperature of the pan drops. Some materials, such as metals, are good conductors of heat while other materials, such as glass, wood, plastic, and air, are not. Materials that are not good at transferring heat by conduction are known as insulators.
Convection transfers heat through the movement of fluids or gases in circulation cells. A pot of water heated on a stove provides an example. The pot itself, and then water at the bottom, becomes heated by conduction. When water is heated, it expands, becomes less dense, and rises up through the surrounding cooler water. The cooler, denser water then sinks to the bottom of the pot where it, in turn, is heated. The convection current—the circulating path of hot water rising and cold water sinking—transfers heat by actually moving the warmer water to a new area. It also forces the hot water to mix with the cooler water and increases conduction by bringing the cool water to the bottom of the pot.
Name: _ Date: Garage Band Art Assignment
You have now been commissioned (paid to create) by the Art Institute of Chicago to create a piece of recorded art. You must create some sort of art either a poem, song, painting, drawing, sculpture, dance, play/skit, radio show etc., you are limited by your own imagination. This piece of art MUST incorporate your knowledge of earth cycles (water, energy, carbon and nitrogen) and how human interaction interrupts those cycles (good or bad). You will use garage band to record your art, describe it, perform it, or create it. The Art Institute is creating an exhibit where they combine audio art with visual art. For those doing visual art, the institute has created a game for patrons to hear the recording and figure out which piece they are talking about. You will play this game with your classmates. You will then prepare a paragraph answering the questions in the rubric and explaining how you included these elements in your art.
Point values / total 100
Student
Ms. Bubier
Did you include the nitrogen cycle?
4
How do humans interrupt Nitrogen cycle? (two ways)
6
Did you include the carbon cycle?
4
How do humans interrupt carbon cycle? (two ways)
6
Did you include the energy cycle?
4
How do humans interrupt the energy cycle? (two ways)
6
Did you include the water cycle
4
How do you humans interrupt the water cycle? (two ways)
6
Garage band recording is at least 2 minutes long.
10
Paragraph is included and free of grammatical errors.
20
Presentation done on time.
10
Why do you think you deserve the grade you gave yourself?
LESSON PLAN FORMAT
Teacher’s Name: Rebecca Bubier Date of Lesson: two
Grade Level: 8 Topic: Earth Cycles
Objectives:
Maine Learning Results Alignment
E. The Living Environment
D2 Earth
Grades 6-8
Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-terms changes to the earth.
d. Describe significant Earth Resources and how their limited supply affects how they are used.
Assessment
Students will be having a discussion regarding how the earth resembles the functions of the human body. Students will have to get together with their partners (which will be the choice of the students) and talk about earth systems. They will have the opportunity to read everyone’s wiki and then ask those groups questions. I will assess how many questions they have and exactly what they are asking, if there needs to be any clarification, I will give that.
Students will be creating some sort of audio project using garage band. They can write a song. Record a poem; describe a drawn picture, anything they want. I want them to be able to use garage band so they will know how to use it when it is time for them to complete their final performance task. They are going to play a game with their classmates where they create an art and either record or play it for their classmates. If they create a piece of visual art, they have to describe it to their classmates. The catch is that they can’t show it until after they have played their recording. They must incorporate some asked questions into the art and the affect that human’s have on earth cycles and thus, earth systems.
Integration
English –students will be using language to help other students ‘see’ their art. This will help them with their descriptive skills, which will help when describing experiments and other things in the sciences and the natural world.
Art – students will have the opportunity to create some sort of art (as they choose) and then describe it.
Music – students will have the opportunity to create a song or a musical representation of earth cycles, it can be funny, it can be serious but it has to use garage band and they have to make the connection between what we put into earth’s system and what happens with it.
Groupings
Differentiated Instruction
Linguistic – students will be talking to record the description of their piece of art, or recording their piece of art. They will be having a discussion about earth cycles before we get the activity going.
Spatial – students will have the opportunity to create a visual representation of the cycles. They can choose one, or do more than one.
Musical – students will have the opportunity to create a song or integrate music with reading a poem or describing a piece of art.
Bodily – Kinesthetic – students will have the opportunity to create a song and then dance to it. They can treat the project as an interpretive dance or they can make some sort of kinesthetic visual. Either way, it requires them to be up and moving.
Interpersonal –students will be working on their audio art with a partner
Intrapersonal – students will be working on their own while we are having the discussion of earth’s system and the human body. They will be sharing their own thoughts and opinions.
Naturalist – students will be talking and working with the connection of nature to the human body in the form of earth’s systems and cycles.
Students will be using type II technology to gain descriptive skills. They will be using it to create art and to see the importance of keeping things. Other students will be commenting on their art and giving them positive feedback about what they liked about it.
Materials, Resources and Technology
Markers
Whiteboard
Eraser
Overhead
Content Notes
Garage band software
Art Supplies (paint, markers, paper, brushes, chalk…etc.)
Microphones if computers do not have them
Additional music for students to integrate (at their own discretion)
Content notes from last class
Source for Lesson Plan and Research
“Sacred Balance” By David Suzuki
http://www.ozi.com/ourplanet/gaia.html
http://www.und.edu/instruct/eng/fkarner/pages/cycle.htm
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/lsps07/sci/life/eco/nitrogen/index.html
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Water/co2_cycle.html
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/lsps07/sci/phys/energy/heattransfer/index.html
http://www.dasnr.okstate.edu/s257/h2ocycle.gif
http://fig.cox.miami.edu/Faculty/Dana/carboncycle.gif
http://www.h2ou.com/h2images/NitrogenCycle-smF.jpg
http://www.scienceblog.org/images/nitrogencycle.jpg
http://www.repp.org/bioenergy/bioenergy-cycle-med2.jpg
http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/images/atmosphere/energy/energy_balance.jpg
Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale
Rationale: I used the theory of different learning styles to successfully accommodate different ways in which students learn. It is important that students are in a comfortable and supporting environment in my classroom.
Beach Ball - Students will have the opportunity to choose which art project they would like to complete and how they want to record it. They can choose what they want to talk about during the discussion.
Clipboard – Students will have instructions written on the board. They will have a process during the discussion. The art project is anything that they would like to do; it just has to be approved by me if it is not visual art, song or poem.
Microscope - Students really have to incorporate the knowledge that they just gained about different cycles. They have to use the information to create a piece of art work and then use a new type of software to describe it. They have to answer questions regarding earth system and earth cycles.
Puppy - There is no question that there is an environment of respect in my classroom. Students will be respectful of the questions that students have and also the language in which they are using around all students.
Rationale: I used one of the facets of understanding because I feel that it is more important that students have a wide range of information looking at cycles and functions in earth’s system. The point of this lesson is to go into depth of earth cycles, how they are related, how they are different. I want them to understand what things that people do to the earth affect everything in the earth’s system.
Compare cycles, how they work together and how they work separately.
Rationale: I used the theory of multiple intelligences because I feel it is the best way to accommodate all types of learners and to maintain a sense of equality among students in my classroom.
Linguistic – students will be talking to record the description of their piece of art, or recording their piece of art. They will be having a discussion about earth cycles before we get the activity going.
Spatial – students will have the opportunity to create a visual representation of the cycles. They can choose one, or do more than one.
Musical – students will have the opportunity to create a song or integrate music with reading a poem or describing a piece of art.
Bodily – Kinesthetic – students will have the opportunity to create a song and then dance to it. They can treat the project as an interpretive dance or they can make some sort of kinesthetic visual. Either way, it requires them to be up and moving.
Interpersonal –students will be working on their audio art with a partner
Intrapersonal – students will be working on their own while we are having the discussion of earth’s system and the human body. They will be sharing their own thoughts and opinions.
Naturalist – students will be talking and working with the connection of nature to the human body in the form of earth’s systems and cycles.
Rationale: Students will be having a discussion regarding how the earth resembles the functions of the human body. Students will have to get together with their partners (which will be the choice of the students) and talk about earth systems. They will have the opportunity to read everyone’s wiki (from last class) and then ask those groups questions. I will assess how many questions they have and exactly what they are asking, if there needs to be any clarification, I will give that. Students will be creating some sort of audio project using garage band. They can write a song, record a poem, describe a drawn picture (or any visual art), anything they want. I want them to be able to use garage band so they will know how to use it when it is time for them to complete their final performance task.
Teaching and Learning Sequence:
Agenda:
Students will understand that all the things that we do to the earth, affects more than just that one piece of land, or that one body of water, everything we do affects everything. Earth’s system is interconnected and it starts out with the basic cycles. They are learning this because it is important to know what pollution and consumption of fossil fuels affects. They should know where those resources come from and what our impact is on the change climate and the earth itself. Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-terms changes to the earth. They are learning about cycles, and the human actions that affect the short-term and long-term changes. I am going to hook my students by reading a passage from the book “Sacred Balance” By David Suzuki. It talks about earth being a super organism and how human affect that balance. Where, Why, What, Hook, Tailor: Linguistic, Spatial,
(Same notes as lesson one, continued use)
Water Cycle:
The process begins with condensation, when water vapor condenses in the atmosphere to form clouds. Condensation occurs when the temperature of the air or earth changes. Water changes states when temperatures fluctuate. So when the air cools enough, water vapor has to condense on particles in the air to form clouds. This process is very noticeable on plants as they dew in the morning.
As clouds form, winds move them across the globe, spreading out the water vapor. When eventually the clouds can't hold the moisture, they release it in the form of precipitation, which can be snow, rain, hail, etc.
The next three stages: infiltration, runoff, and evaporation occur simultaneously. Infiltration occurs when precipitation seeps into the ground. This depends a lot on the permeability of the ground.
Permeability is the measure of how easily something flows through a substance. The more permeable, the more precipitation seeps into the ground. If precipitation occurs faster than it can infiltrate the ground, it becomes runoff. Runoff remains on the surface and flows into streams, rivers, and eventually large bodies such as lakes or the ocean. Infiltrated groundwater moves similarly as it recharges rivers and heads towards large bodies of water.
As both of these processes are happening, the power of the sun is driving this cycle by causing evaporation. Evaporation is the change of liquid water to a vapor. Sunlight aids this process as it raises the temperature of liquid water in oceans and lakes. As the liquid heats, molecules are released and change into a gas. Warm air rises up into the atmosphere and becomes the vapor involved in condensation.
Considering so little of the water on earth is drinkable to people, it is amazing the supply has survived as long as it has. The hydrologic cycle continues to move water and keep sources fresh. It is estimated that 100 million billion gallons a year are cycled through this process. Without this process life on Earth would be impossible. We need it to sustain us and for all of our life processes to function. Without water, life would not be possible on Earth.
Nitrogen Cycle
One of the most limiting factors for growth in plants and animals. Most nitrogen exists as a gas. In this common molecule, two nitrogen atoms are bound by a strong triple bond that makes them all but completely unavailable to any other atom, ion, compound, or organism. Yet without sufficient levels of available nitrogen, organisms would be unable to create their structures or to perform vital functions. Nitrogen is a key building block in a number of important molecules, such as nucleic acids, amino acids, and proteins. Without it, life as we know it would be impossible.
Two natural forces are responsible for most of the gaseous nitrogen that is "fixed," or made available to, plants and animals. Electricity in the form of lightning is one such force. When a bolt of lightning travels through the atmosphere it breaks the triple bond holding the nitrogen gas molecule together, enabling free nitrogen atoms to bond with oxygen in the air to form nitrogen oxides. These compounds dissolve in atmospheric moisture to form nitrates that then fall as rain.
The other force, although less spectacular than lightning, is no less energetic. Countless bacteria, including those living freely in the soil and those found on the roots of some types of plants, fix more than ten times the nitrogen released by lightning strikes. These single-celled organisms break the bonds in nitrogen gas molecules and combine free nitrogen atoms with hydrogen to form ammonium, an ion that is readily absorbed by plants. Some types of nitrogen-fixing bacteria have formed symbiotic relationships with certain types of plants. Legumes, such as peas and beans, support colonies of bacteria called rhizobium, in special structures called nodules, which appear directly on their roots. While the bacteria provide the plants with nitrogen, the plants provide the bacteria with energy-rich carbohydrates and a moist environment in which they can thrive.
Human activities have severely altered the nitrogen levels in some ecosystems. Although nitrogen is typically a limited resource in many environments, it has been made available in massive quantities as a result of agricultural and industrial practices. Sometimes described as "nutrient pollution," the result has often been catastrophic. For instance, when waste such as nitrogen-rich sewage and fertilizers pours into ponds, lakes, and streams, the result is an overabundance of algae (also know as an algal bloom). The eventual death of these microscopic plants leads to their decomposition by bacteria—a process that uses vast quantities of oxygen. Following an algal bloom, decomposing bacteria in lakes and ponds become so abundant and oxygen depletion so complete that fish and other aquatic life may die. In the years since scientists discovered this connection, cities and farmers have taken measures to control the flow of nitrogen into ecosystems, so that this powerful element is available at the right quantity where it is needed and less pervasive where it is not.
Carbon Cycle
Carbon is an element. It is part of oceans, air, rocks, soil and all living things. Carbon doesn’t stay in one place. It is always on the move!
In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2). With the help of the Sun, through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is pulled from the air to make plant food from carbon.
Through food chains, the carbon that is in plants moves to the animals that eats them. Animals that eat other animals get the carbon from their food too.
When plants and animals die, their bodies, wood and leaves decay bringing the carbon into the ground. Some becomes buried miles underground and will become fossil fuels in millions and millions of years.
Each time you exhale, you are releasing carbon dioxide gas (CO2) into the atmosphere. Animals and plants get rid of carbon dioxide gas through a process called respiration.
When humans burn fossil fuels to power factories, power plants, cars and trucks, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas. Each year, five and a half billion tons of carbon is released by burning fossil fuels. That’s the weight of 100 million adult African elephants! Of the huge amount of carbon that is released from fuels, 3.3 billion tons enters the atmosphere and most of the rest becomes dissolved in seawater.
The oceans, and other bodies of water, soak up some carbon from the atmosphere. Animals that live in the ocean use the carbon to build their skeletons and shells.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere. Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago. The atmosphere has not held this much carbon for at least 420,000 years according to data from ice cores. More greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are causing our planet to become warmer.
Carbon moves through our planet over longer time scales as well. For example, over millions of years weathering of rocks on land can add carbon to surface water which eventually runs off to the ocean. Over long time scales, carbon is removed from seawater when the shells and bones of marine animals and plankton collect on the sea floor. These shells and bones are made of limestone, which contains carbon. When they are deposited on the sea floor, carbon is stored from the rest of the carbon cycle for some amount of time. The amount of limestone deposited in the ocean depends somewhat on the amount of warm, tropical, shallow oceans on the planet because this is where prolific limestone-producing organisms such as corals live. The carbon can be released back to the atmosphere if the limestone melts or is metamorphosed in a subduction zone.
Energy Cycle
Heat is energy that is transferred between two objects or substances of different temperatures; heat typically flows from a warmer material to a cooler material. Generally, when heat is transferred to a material, the motion of its particles speeds up and its temperature increases.
There are three methods of heat transfer: radiation, conduction, and convection. Radiation transfers energy by electromagnetic waves, a method in which heat can transfer even in the absence of matter (through outer space, for example). When electromagnetic radiation strikes an object, the energy carried by the electromagnetic wave is transferred to the object, causing the particle motion within the object to increase. For example, a microwave oven emits microwave radiation to transfer heat to food. Similarly, the reason that you can feel the warmth of an object at a distance, such as from the Sun or a light bulb, is due to the transfer of heat by radiation. While all matter emits and absorbs electromagnetic radiation, some materials are better at absorbing radiation than others; shiny surfaces, for example, tend to reflect rather than absorb radiation.
Conduction transfers heat through direct contact. If two objects are placed in contact with each other, heat flows from the warmer object (with faster-moving particles) to the cooler object (with slower-moving particles) by the direct interaction of the particles. When the faster particles collide with the slower particles, they transfer some of their energy to the slower particles. For example, when a hot pan is placed on a counter, the counter increases in temperature as the faster-moving molecules of the pan collide with and increase the motion of the molecules of the counter. At the same time, the molecules of the pan slow down, and the temperature of the pan drops. Some materials, such as metals, are good conductors of heat while other materials, such as glass, wood, plastic, and air, are not. Materials that are not good at transferring heat by conduction are known as insulators.
Convection transfers heat through the movement of fluids or gases in circulation cells. A pot of water heated on a stove provides an example. The pot itself, and then water at the bottom, becomes heated by conduction. When water is heated, it expands, becomes less dense, and rises up through the surrounding cooler water. The cooler, denser water then sinks to the bottom of the pot where it, in turn, is heated. The convection current—the circulating path of hot water rising and cold water sinking—transfers heat by actually moving the warmer water to a new area. It also forces the hot water to mix with the cooler water and increases conduction by bringing the cool water to the bottom of the pot.
Name: _ Date:
Garage Band Art Assignment
You have now been commissioned (paid to create) by the Art Institute of Chicago to create a piece of recorded art. You must create some sort of art either a poem, song, painting, drawing, sculpture, dance, play/skit, radio show etc., you are limited by your own imagination. This piece of art MUST incorporate your knowledge of earth cycles (water, energy, carbon and nitrogen) and how human interaction interrupts those cycles (good or bad). You will use garage band to record your art, describe it, perform it, or create it. The Art Institute is creating an exhibit where they combine audio art with visual art. For those doing visual art, the institute has created a game for patrons to hear the recording and figure out which piece they are talking about. You will play this game with your classmates. You will then prepare a paragraph answering the questions in the rubric and explaining how you included these elements in your art.
Why do you think you deserve the grade you gave yourself?